Swede dreams are made of this

By -
We've been in Sweden a couple of days now. We drove over the Øresund bridge to get here – there's a road tunnel under the sea and then the majestic, sweeping bridge that connects Denmark to Sweden – and I'd been excited about this moment since before we left the UK. I had the idea of videoing this momentous journey, so Claire got the video camera out and we started filming as we emerged from the tunnel up onto the bridge itself. I'd forgotten to charge the battery, however, so we got 90 seconds of footage of us driving out of a tunnel. It's probably just as well though, because it's quite a long bridge and after a while it got a bit "samey". Nobody would have wanted to sit through that.

After leaving Mälmo, at the bridge's end, we headed to Ystad, which is the home town of depressing fictional Swedish detective Wallander. He wasn't there. We then went on to Ales Stenar, near Kåsberga, which is the site of some bronze age standing stones – like Avebury but boat-shaped – up on the cliff tops. That was mighty impressive. We also visited Kungagraven (King's grave) a burial sight that looks like the Tellytubby house but built of boulders. That, too, was quite special.

Our first impressions of Sweden were that it was a bit bleak and run down and grey compared to Denmark. I seem to remember a possibly made up fact that Sweden has quite a high suicide rate and we could certainly feel the fun ebbing out of our lives as we trundled through the depressing landscape of the south. And that was in bright sunshine. The countryside as we move north is better – probably because we are seeing lakes and forests and all the things you expect of a Scandinavian country. We've seen warning signs for moose, deer and even boar which brings an air of excitement to the journey as you eagerly anticipate having to take evasive action as some beast of the forest hurls itself into the road. None have made an appearance yet sadly.

Sweden seems to have a lot of bike gangs. We've met several chapters of the Swedish Hell's Angels cruising around – and they ARE just like the gang in those Girl Who Set Fire To A Dragon's Nest films. Swedes also seem to be very fond of big gas-guzzling American cars, so our Ebay van feels right at home.

Just had my first go at laundry for this trip. Any confusion I may have had with English washing machines (I always use the same setting – colours, 40°) has just been amplified ten-fold by the Swedish machine I was confronted with. Not one word or symbol is remotely recognisable – only numbers. Worryingly "9H" flashed up when I switched it on and I'm worried I'm going to be sat here for 9 hours…

We are currently camped somewhere unpronounceable by a lake with an old ruined castle on an island in the middle. Views don't get much better than that!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Captain cook

By -
Image
At this time of year a lot of the campsites have started closing for winter so, as we made our way back towards the Alps, our choices of where to stay became a bit limited and we ended up choosing campsites that we might not normally stay at. Which is how we ended up staying at a fairly surreal place in a little town called Torre Daniele. It’s not a massive town but we still had difficulty locating the campsite itself and, even after spotting it, couldn’t find a way in and somehow ended up driving over a sort of rickety old foot bridge. The place was full of old knackered caravans and looked abandoned, apart from a single dog who was barking loudly. Claire hopped out to see if she could find someone in charge and approximately 20 seconds later was back in the van with the barking dog hot on her heels. We drove a bit further into the camp and an elderly couple emerged from one of the caravans. They were Dutch, very friendly and told us that they came here for two months every year to he...
Read more

Basket cases

By -
Image
For me, Yosemite is a bit like The Beatles . Because so many people insist that The Beatles were the best band ever, eventually everyone just accepts that as fact. People are worried to point out that, actually, while The Beatles were a competent four-piece beat combo with some pleasant songs, the title of "best band ever" is a purely subjective one. Some people might think the same of The Rolling Stones or Queen or Brotherhood Of Man . Possibly. So it is with Yosemite National Park. So many people told us we "just had to go there", "it's an amazing place" or "it'll blow your socks off" that the pressure was on to actually get there and see what all the fuss was about. And while it is a lovely and beautiful place, I'm afraid my socks remained firmly on for my whole time there. Perhaps my expectations were just built up too much – maybe I was expecting rivers of gold and grazing unicorns or something. Instead I got the equivalent o...
Read more

Close encounter of the tree kind

By -
Image
This week we were in three different states. Four if you count 'dismay'. Firstly, from a cool and mountainous Colorado we went to a warmer and slightly flatter New Mexico. Almost immediately one of the things you notice change is the architecture, with lots of pueblo-style adobe buildings everywhere. In fact, in places like downtown Santa Fe there's a strict building code that means all buildings have to be in this style, whether it's McDonalds or a covered car park. It makes the whole place seem a little bit twee and a bit fake – like you're walking around a Mexican theme park or something. Santa Fe is also a very 'arty' city and there are vast amounts of naff paintings and weird sculpture awaiting any tourists that happen to have more money than taste. In terms of attractions, Santa Fe sticks with the construction theme. F or a start it boasts the "Miraculous Stairway", a spiral staircase in an old chapel that apparently shouldn't work as ...
Read more